Indiana Jones: Myth, Reality and 21st Century Archaeology

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September 28th 2016:Encore: Birds of a feather: Chaco trade and Macaws

Researchers recently conducted radiocarbon tests on the bones of 30 scarlet macaws, originally excavated in 1897, stored at New York’s American Museum of Natural History. Their findings are causing the previous theories about the development of civilization in Mesoamerica to molt away. The macaw skeletons were much older than previously thought. While no one is ruffled by the data, a different understanding of trade and society is being hatched. The result of the findings suggests that Chaco Canyon economic growth and reach may actually have been the driving force behind its cultural and relig

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Dr. Adam Watson

Dr. Adam Watson’s research explores human interaction with the environment, political economy, ritual, and the development of societal complexity. His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. Specializing in archaeozoology and GIS, Watson has applied these methods to examine the development of complex societies and changing patterns of human subsistence, economy, and landscape utilization in relation to environmental uncertainty in pre-Columbian North America.
http://www.amnh.org/our-research/staff